FEDERAL ACTIONS
EPA Announces Public Comment Period On Atrazine IRED And Water Quality Criteria Document
EPA's Pesticides Office has released for public comment a revised atrazine Interim Registration Eligibility Document under FIFRA and the FQPA. At the same time, EPA's Water Office released for public comment a draft atrazine Water Quality Criteria Document under the Clean Water Act. The comment period for both the IRED and the Criteria Document ends February 5, 2004. These two documents have importance beyond the re-registration of this product. They both involve EPA regulation in atrazine in surface waters, and the two EPA Offices have attempted to be consistent under two different regulatory regimes. In addition, these may be the first major EPA public comment proceedings where Data Quality Act issues are prominent during the comment period.

FEDERAL ACTIONS
EPA Announces Public Comment Period On Atrazine IRED And Water Quality Criteria Document
EPA's Pesticides Office has released for public comment a revised atrazine Interim Registration Eligibility Document under FIFRA and the FQPA. At the same time, EPA's Water Office released for public comment a draft atrazine Water Quality Criteria Document under the Clean Water Act. The comment period for both the IRED and the Criteria Document ends February 5, 2004. These two documents have importance beyond the re-registration of this product. They both involve EPA regulation in atrazine in surface waters, and the two EPA Offices have attempted to be consistent under two different regulatory regimes. In addition, these may be the first major EPA public comment proceedings where Data Quality Act issues are prominent during the comment period.

DATA QUALITY
CRE Comments on Atrazine Frog SAP
EPA conducted a three-day Science Advisory Panel on atrazine's endocrine effects on amphibians: i.e., frogs. CRE's comments on the SAP reiterated the points made in CRE's Data Quality Act Petition on this issue. First, EPA cannot regulate atrazine for wildlife endocrine effects until there are accurate, reliable and reproducible tests for such effects. Second, there are no such tests at this time. EPA agrees with these points based on its response to CRE's DQA Petition and based on EPA's White Paper for the SAP. The SAP's review of this issue is important because it may be the first SAP review of test reproducibility and reliability issues under the Data Quality Act. The SAP's report on this issue should be out by the end of July.

Can Anyone Make Sense Of The Hayes Frog Test Data?
Dr. Tyrone Hayes has been one of the primary proponents of the theory that atrazine causes endocrine effects in amphibians. CRE asked in a FOIA request that EPA release all data Dr. Hayes submitted to EPA on this issue. CRE was told by EPA that Dr. Hayes refused to allow EPA to release all of his data. CRE raised this issue at EPA's SAP review of the amphibian effects issue, and EPA agreed to release the Hayes data. Attached are the relevant data. CRE admits that it is not an expert on these frog tests, but the Hayes data do not seem to make any sense. Can anyone make sense of them?

FEDERAL ACTIONS
CRE Files Comments on Atrazine IRED
CRE's comments on EPA's "Interim" Interim Registration Eligibility Decision for atrazine made the following main points. First, CRE asked EPA to confirm that the IRED contained EPA's response to CRE's Data Quality Act petition on EPA's prior statements regarding atrazine's endocrine effects, as the Agency had stated in a letter to CRE. Second, CRE questioned EPA's use of the PRIZM/EXAMS model to assess atrazine's environmental effects when the model has never been fully validated and is by design biased. Third, CRE questioned EPA's reliance on simulated field studies to assess atrazine's environmental effects when there are no standardized, validated protocols for conducting such studies.